Tag Archives: DNA

Wow! What happened to Dr. Rife’s practice is disgusting! After finding effective cancer treatments, his lab was destroyed by the FDA. Take a look at how Dr. Rife successfully treated so many patients using natural medice. Share his story! Continue reading →

As far as the future of humanity goes, there are five areas that will shape us the most: the internet, sustainable energy, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and human genetic code manipulation.

Elon Musk, one of the greatest innovators of our time, has already helped shape three of those areas — he co-founded Paypal for online financial transactions, Tesla Motors has given us a future with automobiles that don’t require fossil fuels, and SpaceX is making leaps into affordable and efficient space exploration.

PELL CITY, Alabama — St. Clair and Bibb county authorities are confirming there were roadblocks at several locations in their counties Friday and Saturday asking for blood and DNA samples. However, the samples were voluntary and motorists were paid for them as part of a study, they said.

According to Lt. Freddie Turrentine of the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, it isn’t the first time such roadblocks have occurred in the area.

“They were here in 2007,” said Turrentine, the supervisor in charge of the roadblocks, which took place in several locations in St. Clair County Friday night, early Saturday morning and Saturday night and early Sunday morning. “It’s just with social media and Facebook now, word of it has just exploded.”

Turrentine said the roadblocks were part of a study conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, working with the National Highway Safety Administration. St. Clair County was asked to participate by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs because it had worked with the group six years ago.

Sheriff Keith Hannah in Bibb County said they too had previously participated in the study.

Here’s how the road blocks worked, Turrentine said:

Off-duty St. Clair County deputies stopped cars at random at road block areas. The road blocks were marked with signs stating it was a paid survey. Cars stopped were asked for voluntary cooperation. Drivers were offered $10 for a mouth swab, and $50 for a blood test. If they refused, they were free to drive away.

Road blocks took place Friday at the New London Fire Department, Alabama 34 in Pell City near the old Dan’s Car Wash, U.S. 231 at Alabama 144, at White’s Chapel Parkway and Moody Crossroads in Moody. In Bibb County, the road blocks took place in five areas in the county on Friday night through early Sunday morning.

If drivers participated, they were directed to an area where someone from the group carrying out the study took the samples, he said.

“It was completely voluntary,” Turrentine said, saying reports that people were detained if they did not cooperate were untrue. “If they didn’t want to take part, they could drive off.”

“They were taking the samples in other parts of the country,” he said. “They want to find out of all the people surveyed, how many people were driving with alcohol in their system, or prescription drugs, things like that.”

This will be the only time this year the survey takes place in St. Clair County, he said.

Turrentine, who was at one of the roadblocks, said the group carrying out the study would ask for a certain number of volunteers. Deputies would stop drivers until that number of drivers needed agreed to the survey. Then they let cars pass while the samples were taken.

“We would have a lot who didn’t want to take part, especially at night,” he said. “But then we’d have a few that when we’d tell they could make $60 bucks, they said, ‘What do I need to do?'”

If you were stopped in one of the roadblocks, or took part, and would like to talk, email eastalabama@al.com.

(GAIA Health) -Several states in the U.S. are storing your baby’s DNA sequence. It’s generally being done without your knowledge. All United States newborns’ DNA is now routinely screened for genetic disorders. Parental approval is not required—nor are parents informed. Our children are being born into a Brave New World.

Although the baby’s name is not supposed to be kept with the DNA samples, that begs the question of how parents are informed when their children are found to have genetic diseases. And who really believes that such information is kept private?

Supposed Benefits of Profiling Babies’ DNA

The claimed purpose of such testing is to detect genetic disorders for the babies’ benefit. That benefit, though, is questionable.

Screening for several genetic disorders, without taking DNA profiles, has been routine for several years. Conditions like Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell anemia, and phenylketonuria (PKU) are discovered through blood tests, urine samples, and swabs. Thus far, there are no treatable conditions found in newborns that can’t be found through less intrusive means.

Annie Brown of Minnesota learned of the DNA testing done on her baby when she was informed that her daughter carried the cystic fibrosis gene. Later testing showed that the DNA test didn’t document that her daughter actually had the condition, and it must have put Annie and her husband through a lot of unnecessary stress.

The results of DNA testing may also be used against a person later in life. CNN reported Annie Brown saying:

It’s really a black mark against her, and there’s nothing we can do to get it off there. And let’s say in the future they can test for a gene for schizophrenia or manic-depression and your baby tests positive—that would be on there, too.”

The usual excuse for taking DNA samples of babies is to diagnose genetic disorders, but that doesn’t make sense, as treatable genetic disorders are already discovered without DNA screening. As Annie Brown’s story clarifies, it can also cause undue stress and unneeded extra testing.

Muddled excuses are used to take this most intimate of identifiers, but they don’t make sense. It’s an inefficient and inaccurate means of determining the existence of diseases that can already be identified through other, inexpensive means. So, the suggestion that the purpose is to screen for genetic diseases is absurd.

Likewise, the idea that it’s for crime prevention is absurd. Your fingerprints aren’t taken at birth and kept on a massive database. It would be considered far too intrusive. Yet, most states are now taking even more intimate DNA samples and placing them on a database without parental approval or knowledge.

Other methods are in use to expand DNA databases, most commonly taking DNA samples from anyone convicted of a crime, and often even those who merely come into contact with the law. The intent is to solve crimes, convict criminals, and free those who’ve been wrongfully convicted. However, the fact is that this most personal, private, and intimate physical part of each baby is now being harvested at birth and stored in databases without any assurances that private information will be kept private. In fact, as history has shown with social security numbers, which aren’t supposed to be used for identification, once such a system is implemented, privacy is ephemeral, at best.

Concerns about genetic diseases are often conflated with DNA research. If the purpose is for research, don’t the subjects have the right to be informed and agree to it? It certainly isn’t for the babies’ benefit, since DNA testing is inaccurate at determining the existence of disease, as shown in Annie Brown’s daugher, and there are accurate, inexpensive methods of diagnosis.

Europe

Europeans, in particular citizens of the United Kingdom, should also be concerned. Although the recent government attempts to expand the DNA database—already the world’s largest—have recently been stopped, don’t forget that backdoor methods, as is happening to newborns in the US, can be implemented at any time. The genetic profiles of innocent people are being kept on file now, not only those of people convicted of crimes.

According to the Independent, Sir Alec Jeffreys, who developed DNA fingerprinting, is dismayed at the government’s DNA database. He says:

DNA is intimately different to fingerprinting, it carries incredibly intimate information about who you are, where you’re from and your family.

The United Arab Emirates, certainly not a paragon of freedom, is planning to introduce a mandatory DNA database of every citizen. Is that a road we want to go down? If not, then perhaps it’s time to question this process that seems to be using the medical system to remove every aspect of privacy we have, and to track every detail of our lives.

Will people be shunted into particular careers based on their genetic data? For their own good, of course. Will you have to prick your finger and give a blood sample before you enter your site of employment each day? Deliver up a saliva sample? Will you be forced to undergo medical treatment for a genetic disease you may or may not develop? Where will it end?

(AP) WilliamNow things are looking up for King Richard III. Scientists announced Monday that they had found the monarch’s 500-year-old remains under a parking lot in the city of Leicester — a discovery Richard’s fans say will inspire new research into his maligned history.

University of Leicester researchers say tests on a battle-scarred skeleton unearthed last year prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that it is the king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, and whose remains have been missing for centuries.

“Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England, has been found,” said the university’s deputy registrar, Richard Taylor.

The Plantagenets were a royal dynasty whose strong-tempered rulers conquered Wales, battled France, and help transform England into a thriving medieval kingdom. The last of the dynasty, Richard III was also the last English monarch to die in battle, immortalized by William Shakespeare as a hunchbacked usurper who left a trail of bodies — including those of his two princely nephews, murdered in the Tower of London — on his way to the throne.

DNA from the skeleton matched a sample taken from a distant living relative of Richard’s sister. Geneticist Turi King said Michael Ibsen, a Canadian carpenter living in London, shares with the skeleton a rare strain of mitochondrial DNA. She said combined with the archaeological evidence, that left little doubt the skeleton belonged to Richard.

Ibsen said he was “stunned” to discover he was related to the king — he is a 17th great-grand-nephew of Richard’s older sister.

“It’s difficult to digest” he said.

Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology magazine, said he found the evidence persuasive.

“I don’t think there is any question — it is Richard III,” said Pitts, who was not affiliated with the research team.

He said it was one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries in ages.

“The identification of the king is just the very beginning of a whole range of new ideas and research that will change the way we view this period of history,” he said.

Richard III ruled England between 1483 and 1485, during the decades-long tussle over the throne known as the Wars of the Roses. His brief reign saw liberal reforms, including introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses.

His rule was challenged, and he was defeated and killed by the army of Henry Tudor, who took the throne as King Henry VII.

Many historians say his bloodthirsty image is unfair, and argue Richard’s reputation was smeared by his Tudor successors. That’s an argument taken up by the Richard III Society, set up to re-evaluate the reputation of a reviled monarch.

The society’s Philippa Langley, who helped launch the search for the king, said she could scarcely believe her quest had paid off.

“Everyone thought that I was mad,” she said. “It’s not the easiest pitch in the world, to look for a king under a council car park.”

Now, she said, “a wind of change is blowing, one that will seek out the truth about the real Richard III.”

For centuries, the location of Richard’s body has been unknown. Records say he was buried by the Franciscan monks of Grey Friars at their church in Leicester, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London. The church was closed and dismantled after King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, and its location eventually was forgotten.

Then, last September, archaeologists searching for Richard dug up the skeleton of an adult male who appeared to have died in battle.

Appleby said the 10 injuries to the body were inflicted by weapons like swords, daggers and halberds and were consistent with accounts of Richard being struck down in battle — his helmet knocked from his head — before his body was stripped naked and flung over the back of a horse in disgrace.

She said some scars, including a knife wound to the buttock, bore the hallmarks of “humiliation injuries” inflicted after death.

The remains also displayed signs of scoliosis, which is a form of spinal curvature, consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance, though not with Shakespeare’s description of him as a “deform’d, unfinished,” hunchback.

Researchers conducted a battery of scientific tests, including radiocarbon dating to determine the skeleton’s age. They found the skeleton belonged to a man aged between his late 20s and late 30s who died between 1455 and 1540. Richard was 32 when he died in 1485.

The discovery is a boon for the city of Leicester, which has bought a building next to the parking lot to serve as a visitor center and museum.

The mayor, Peter Soulsby, said the monarch would be interred in the city’s cathedral and a memorial service would be held.